FAA chief not certain grounding saved lives

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration suggested in a speech Wednesday that an order to ground all planes on Sept. 11 had prevented additional jets from being hijacked.

But Wednesday evening, she retreated from her assertion, and said her comments were based on early reports and that there was still no conclusive information that the grounding order had thwarted further hijackings.

FAA Administrator Jane Garvey had told the National Press Club that "I certainly have been persuaded by discussions with the FBI and others, there were others that were thwarted."

"I don't know what the number was," Garvey said. "That, clearly, is part of the investigation."

On Wednesday evening, Garvey said in a telephone interview that her staff had spoken to the FBI later in the day and that "there's no confirmation" in the investigation of additional potential hijackers.

Over the last several weeks, other aviation officials have referred to the grounding of the nation's air fleet, an unprecedented action, as preventing one or more additional hijackings. Investigators are still pursuing that possibility.

There have been reports that federal authorities were investigating the possibility that terrorists might have plotted to commandeer two more commercial flights on Sept. 11.

A senior airline industry investigator said Wednesday night he was told that at least two, and perhaps as many as four, additional Boeing jets had been targeted on Sept. 11. But those flights were delayed that morning because of mechanical problems or because they were waiting to take off when the FAA grounded all flights.

A week after the attacks, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft acknowledged that the authorities were investigating whether other aircraft besides the four jets might have been targeted. But he said at the time, "We are not able at this time to confirm that." Since then, law enforcement officials have refused to confirm publicly that other hijackings were planned on Sept. 11.

Aviation officials have said previously that the decision on that morning to clear American skies of all but military planes might have saved lives.

After the first two hijackings, government officials scrambled to identify other planes that might be vulnerable, especially Boeing 757s and 767s on transcontinental flights. They apparently focused on Delta Flight 1989, which left Boston about the same time as the two planes that hit the World Trade Center. That flight was going to Los Angeles International Airport.

It was ordered down in Cleveland at 9:50 a.m., according to a preliminary chronology assembled by the FAA, and then told to taxi to a secure portion of the airfield, away from the terminal. After the pilot repeatedly insisted that he was not being hijacked, the plane was allowed to taxi to the terminal, but passengers were held on board for about an hour. Afterward, the FBI searched the airplane.

Garvey also said Wednesday that the aviation system now has as a goal of screening all checked bags for explosives, although she would not say when this would be possible. It would depend on how fast new machines could be built, she said.